Verdi and Paolo Conte

The cabarettista Paolo Conte (1937– ) is one of the world’s great singer-songwriters, the author of such classics as “Via con me,” “Azzurro,” and “Genova per noi.”

While sometimes labelled a jazz musician, Conte always insists that he does not write jazz—that, rather, he writes songs about jazz. Onda Rock offers a superb overview of Paolo Conte’s career (in Italian).

There is another Conte masterpiece about music: “Il maestro.” Onda Rock calls the song “an epic Verdian hymn intoned by a female chorus, repeated by Conte with his usual talent for oblique variations as he pays tribute to one of his own artistic influences.”

Full of affection and irony, more than a touch surreal, “Il maestro” is a beautiful homage to Verdi.

The Maestro is in our soul,
and within our soul he will always remain!
Long live the woman, a beautiful martyr,
who will give him all that he asks.
There is nothing more seductive
than an aroused, nymphomaniac orchestra
enclosed within the mystic gulf
that boils with storms and liberty
whirling in the vortex
in which villages* and cities disappear
in the delirium* of those simpletons
and of the usual crowd that ends up there
to see him conduct
with a perfidy that flogs every vileness…
The Maestro is in our soul,
and within our soul he will always remain!

*Paesi can mean “countries,” “homelands,” or “villages.” In the studio version of the song, which follows, Conte sings “mirage” instead of “delirium.”